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Monday, May 2, 2011

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder - Review/Tutorial (Re/Tut? LOL)

The Quest for The Holy Grail A.K.A.: The search for the perfect eyeshadow kit!

Hey all! Well, I'm on my constant quest to find the best thing for my hot-mess eyebrows. I never thought I'd get to this point in my life where I needed to ADD to my eyebrows, as for years before I was always looking to subtract subtract subtract! I was blessed with very thick bushy eyebrows...think Burt from Burt and Ernie on Sesame Street. I never had a uni-brow but I definitely had some thick ass brows. My Godmother used to tell people her niece looked like Brooke Shields when I was a kid. But alas, those were the heyday of my brows. Ever since I had my second son my eyebrows (along with the rest of my body) have just about given up.

Well lookee what I found....

Here is a picture of me around age 16...I was taking my senior class picture. Ohhh what a fun time the mid-90's were. Toast of New York (Cover Girl I believe) lip color...what a mistake that was. Just because everyone was wearing it did NOT mean an orangey brown was right for me!! GAH! And those brows. What a spectacle. This is how I walked around until I think my best friend Lisa Anne told me in college: "Dude get those things WAXED!!" And the spiral perm. Oh the spiral perm. This was also just about before the time where I decided since I was a social outcast at my all- girls Catholic High School (oh yes) that I should look the part and started wearing black lipstick and purple hair. But I digress...hey, at least I was skinny.

Time to come back from my follicly-challenged past...

So I find myself looking for the perfect eyebrow kit. I have used eyebrow pencils in the past, but found them to be a bit harsh. I really don't need to LINE my brows, just fill in a bit. The NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Blonde 06 seemed to fit the bill. I think really, I may need a lighter shade...when my brows are all filled in they seem a bit dark.

Overall the product is GREAT for the price. it comes with two different shades of pressed brow powder in an adorable little compact. It's tiny, maybe 3"X 2" tops. It also comes with wax for those fly-away brow hairs, and two brushes. One brush is for literally brushing your brow hairs into place, and the other is a stubby, stiff angled brush for applying the color/wax. Regular price for this compact at Ulta is $5.99 and it was BOGO for NYX (at Ulta I think it ALWAYS is!) and I paid about $3!

Here's the compact closed. It has a neat, hinged clear cover that flips sideways to the right. I haven't had an issue with it flipping open on its own, but then again I don't really take it out with me. Once my brows are done, they are done and I leave the kit at home.

And here's the compact open. I've used this quite a bit so yes those are hairs in the wax. Before you have a hairy canary, its not MY hair...what do I look like a collie? Its the little hairs from the brush that comes with the kit. Not the best quality brush, so I left them on the wax for effect to show you all. Also because I'm a slob.

Let's start playing with this kit shall we?

Guess what we start with? That's right two jacked-up, clean eyebrows that probably are overdue for a waxing.

Oh good, I just happen to have a pair!

Here's a closeup of my eyebrow. The hairs are just all over the place. It looks like I slept on my face. You can see here that towards my nose the thickest part is definitely spotty looking, it needs some filling in. The arch needs some direction and purpose instead of looking like its wandering all over my face. The ends need to be filled in a lot because the two or three hairs hanging out there don't really count as an "eyebrow" at this point.

As a fun little aside, my old boss that I used to have when I worked at L'Oreal/Lancome corporate was super awesome, and she happened to be from Moscow, Russia. She lived there til she was like 25 (she was 32 when I met her) so she spoke perfect English, but occasionally had trouble with American slang/colloquialisms. (which we NEVER made fun of her for. Not! She loved it tho and always laughed at herself. I love that chick!) Anyhoo...she told me how when she first came to America she didnt get the word eyebrows too well and had called them "eyebrowsers". I still laugh out loud thinking about "eyebrowsers". I imagine a google search type browser but made completely of eyebrows.

Back to business!

Grab the brush from the kit (it looks like a mascara wand!) and start taming those wild brows. I start closest to my nose and brush upwards, following the direction the hairs grow in. I then go along the arch and out towards my temple. Just like brushing your hair, go IN the direction of the hair..not against it or you'll look like a Wookie.

Ahhh there, all the hair going in somewhat the same direction. Success!

Time to start filling in. Use the angled brush to get color loaded on there. I like to mix the two colors because I found the dark to be too dark and the light to be too faint. I take a bit up onto the brush and then tap it into the empty area (where the brushes usually hang out) and just tap off the excess/mix the colors.

As a rule of thumb, I like to follow the above "guidelines" when filling in my eyebrows. I like to make sure the arch is in line with the end of my nose. I also like to make sure the end of my eyebrow doesn't go beyond the end of my eye. A good way to figure all this out is to use an eyebrow brush and do some measuring. Nobody wants to walk around rocking too-long eyebrows.

I bring the brush up and start towards my nose. With gentle brushing strokes I fill in all the empty spaces. The goal is to give the eyebrows some shape and not go too nuts. It should all look pretty natural. Brush in the direction the hair is growing in and refill your brush if you run out of color.

Getting towards the outer tip, you can see I turn the brush to get the edge on the part of the eyebrow that gets thinnest, the ends. Follow the natural arch of your eyebrow and don't go too far above or below it, or else the result will be way too dramatic. Unless that's what you're going for of course. If that's the case then brush away my friend!

This step isn't completely necessary if you feel like your brows are all going in one direction and are still not too messy. This is the wax step. I put a bit of wax (a little goes a long way!) on the brush and brush again in the direction of hair growth.

Here is the end result; a perfectly shaped, filled in eyebrow with all the hair going in one direction! Sort of. I definitely need a wax/trim. Eventually my eyebrows get too long and nothing short of crazy glue will keep them all going in one nice neat direction. But you get the point.

BEFORE AND AFTER!

As you can see from the first picture my eyebrows were sparse and had no direction. In the second pic they definitely look shaped and well behaved. And I had my bluetooth in my ear the entire time. Classy. FYI the lip gloss I'm wearing is LORAC 3D Multiplex in 3D which is super awesome. I plan on doing a review of their lip gloss soon so there's a little teaser.

So here's a fun fact...I can do this trick with my eyebrows and raise them one by one...left...right. Good thing I have nice, filled in eyebrows so I can really draw attention to my silly face.

I know you're impressed. I am too.

So thanks for following along on my Re/Tut. I hope it was entertaining and informative. I will post a little more information below on NYX's Eyeshadow Cake Powder if you're interested in purchasing. I think if you need to give your brows a little boost it's worth it. I give the product overall a A-. Why not an A? Well, I think this is their lightest shade and I really feel like I need a lighter color. Oh well. Follow my blog for more fun stuff happening soon!

5 comments:

The instruction is GREAT and the kit looks like a pretty good choice for a lot of people. Your Before/After pics truly show the importance of proper brow grooming - why, without grooming, a girl just looks like a nutcase, but with.... Ah, a true lady emerges!

hi! i read this review because i was thinking of purchasing the product and i wanted to let you know that i love your sense of humor! and the before and after pictures :) it seems that you have not been blogging lately, but i hope you come back! i plan to read many more of your posts!

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